American Trio of Sprinters Taking Aim at Recapturing 100-Meter Glory in Rio

The biggest takeaway—maybe more of a revelation—while watching any heat of the women's 100-meter dash is the sheer violence of those bodies. They are designed at a molecular level to do one thing: sprint.

That strength and power was on display Sunday at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials during the women's 100-meter final, which NBC's Tom Hammond called "one of the greatest finals in history."

English Gardner, Tianna Bartoletta and Tori Bowie each ran sub-10.8 times and stand the best chance at dethroning the Jamaicans from the podium at the Rio Olympics. Gardner seized victory with a time of 10.74, while Bartoletta and Bowie (who was unbeaten in 2016 before this race) both ran 10.78.

The U.S. hasn't won a clean gold medal in the 100-meter dash at the Summer Olympics in 20 years. In those 1996 Atlanta Games, Gail Devers won her second straight gold—and fourth in a row for the United States. Marion Jones vacated her gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics due to her use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Meanwhile, Jamaica has won six Olympic medals in the 100 meters since 2004, including back-to-back golds on the feet of the world No. 1: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

She looms over the field, but the gap is closing between her and the rest of the world. The Netherlands' Dafne Schippers ranks No. 2 with Jamaica's Elaine Thompson at No. 3.

It was an emotional win at the trials for Gardner, who dropped to her knees and slapped the track after her victory.

Gardner's 10.74 time and Bartoletta and Bowie's 10.78 put them in the conversation with Thompson, who ran the year's fastest time of 10.70, and two-time defending Olympic gold medalist Fraser-Pryce.

Gardner, who failed to make the team in 2012, said during the NBC broadcast that it was great "to come back in 2016 and make the team against phenomenal ladies." Gardner said she "ran my best race I had all season" and added, "I'll go out there and give the USA the best performance ever."

Then there's Bowie, the Mississippi native who was upset in the trials, but no less daunted.

"I've got to be thankful for everybody today," Bowie said after the trials on the NBC broadcast. "I'm just going to be thankful. Here I am. I'm thankful. On to the next race."

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

Bowie took bronze at the 2015 World Championships behind, you guessed it, Fraser-Pryce and Schippers. Bowie's time of 10.86 was eight-tenths of a second slower than her time in the trials.

Despite losing the trials, she may represent the best chance this country has at usurping Fraser-Pryce and Schippers.

But Gardner's trials performance was a wake-up call. If she can elevate herself in Rio the way she did at the trials, it could be Gardner who sits tallest on the podium.

Anyone who saw the look in her eyes before, during and after her trials win witnessed an intensity we haven't seen on this soil since Devers.

"That's just how I am," Gardner told ESPN.com's Johnette Howard in May. "I want to be a greatest of all time. To be a GOAT, you've gotta think like a GOAT."

That reflects what Tim Layden of Sports Illustrated wrote the day before her trials victory:

"

It's a fundamental truth of U.S. Track and Field that another great sprinter always comes along. This is not to say that there is a system that produces these great sprinters, refilling the void left by the aged and the injured, because there really is no system. … [B]ut there are always a few that drift in the direction of the track and simply stay there, eventually finding the best coaches and running fast in red, white and blue.

"

That's what happened with Gardner, Bowie and Bartoletta.

As these three women push each other, it increases the chances one can take down the incumbent and commit an Olympic regicide of the highest order.

2016 is the first year where five different women have run under 10.80, and Gardner, Bowie and Bartoletta account for three of those times—and all three in one blazing 100-meter final.

Gardner's time of 10.74 sounds loud behind Fraser-Pryce and Thompson—and it's only getting louder as three pairs of spiked feet claw hard and fast toward Jamaica's summit.